Postcolonial Literature

Postcolonialism in English literature

So, what exactly is postcolonial literature?

Fig. 1 - Example of colonial architecture

The twentieth century was marked by anti-colonial rebellions and resistance movements from colonies all over the world. We can identify several contributing factors that inspired the rise of postcolonial literature:

• The introduction of English education made the native communities proficient in English, enough to be able to read, write, and speak English.
• Pro-independence movements against colonial authorities inspired the colonised subjects to write fictional and non-fictional accounts of life under colonial rule, sometimes as a part of the anti-colonial resistance.
• Globalisation and the free flow of commodities across nations gave an incentive for postcolonial writers to seek global fame for their creative efforts in English.
• Writers of postcolonial backgrounds broke away from their regional and indigenous modes of storytelling by adopting the language and narrative models of the West. This is seen simultaneously as a consequence of cultural disruption as well as an act of co-opting the language of the colonial authority to express native sentiments and stories.

Postcolonial literature characteristics

Postcolonial literature is not a watertight genre that carries certain assured characteristics. It is an umbrella term used to group together works by writers from postcolonial nations and those written about the impacts of colonialism. However, there are certain overlapping or recurring themes.

Postcolonial literature challenges the mainstream narratives about colonialism and colonial populations by presenting the other side of the story and humanising the characters who are often portrayed through colonial stereotypes. Postcolonial literature functions as a vehicle to display talent from erstwhile colonies and to present postcolonial cultures to counter stereotypical narratives around them.

Themes of postcolonial literature

Now we will explore the themes that usually feature in works of postcolonial literature.

Hybridity

The concept of hybridity was proposed by the literary scholar and theorist Homi K. Bhabha (b. 1949) to describe how the encounters between different cultures create new identities that contain elements of both. Hybrid identities and belonging to different worlds at the same time are common themes in postcolonial literature.

Language

Cultural encounters are rarely only about power. Other aspects of culture, such as language, are always susceptible to influences. The language in postcolonial fiction is particularly worthy of mention as the writers attempt to capture their native situations and characters in a foreign language. As a result, creative deviations in the use of language are common in postcolonial writing.

History

The notion that history is a single, unified story is increasingly challenged by scholars and historians. It is sometimes the case that some groups or experiences are left out of popular history. Postcolonial literature also works as an alternative way of writing history from the point of view of an individual or a particular community.

Hierarchy of power

Most social relations include power struggles. Power is distributed in society along the lines of gender, race, wealth, religion and so on. The inequality in the relationship between the colonial masters and subjects is explored in remarkable ways in postcolonial fiction. The postcolonial condition or the consequences and impact of colonialism are present in postcolonial writing more often than not.

Intertextuality

Often, local themes, myths, and art forms make an appearance in postcolonial fiction. Sometimes the myths are directly inspired by epics and mythological narratives from folk or oral literature of the region.

Othering

A social practice stemming from overt or implicit biases that cause certain sections of society to be treated as less than or inferior to other, sometimes more dominant groups in a country. Othering may be based on race, language, religious beliefs, and nationality.

Postcolonial literature: examples

Postcolonial literature is a flourishing category of literature, and hundreds of new books are being published every year, adding to the repository of postcolonial fiction. Here are just a few examples of postcolonial novels.

Things Fall Apart (1958)

The debut novel by the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe is one of the most famous postcolonial novels of all time. The title of this novel was inspired by a line from W. B. Yeats's poem 'The Second Coming' (1920). Achebe's novel is the story of a man from the Igbo community in Africa. The novel contains three parts tracing his personality, family background, values, the customs and life of his tribe, and his reaction to the increasing presence of Christian missionaries and colonisers, whom he perceives as a threat and corrupting influence on the Igbo culture and way of life.

Midnight's Children (1981)

Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children is one of the most critically acclaimed novels in English literature. It won the Booker Prize in 1981 and the 'Booker of the Bookers' in 1993, as the best among the winners of the prize until then.

Fig. 2 British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie

The novel is a fictional tale of the events leading up to Indian independence from British rule and its aftermath, including the partition of India. Told by the book's protagonist Saleem Sinai, the book narrates the allegorical story of the children who were born at midnight on August 15, 1947, when India won independence. Rushdie uses magic realism in the novel, which is a device commonly used in postcolonial fiction.

Purple Hibiscus (2003)

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a novel set in postcolonial Nigeria in the midst of political and economic turmoil. It tells the story of a fifteen-year-old Kambili Achike who comes from a wealthy family in Enugu State. The novel deals with topics such as domestic violence and the social and cultural changes that take place in Nigeria after colonial rule.

Exit West (2017)

Written by Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid, Exit West is a novel about migration, which is common in many postcolonial societies. It is considered a fantasy novel as it tells the story of a couple in a place torn apart by civil war who try to flee using magical doors that offer passage to different places in the world.

One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) by Gabriel Garcia Marcus and White Teeth (2000) by Zadie Smith are also examples of postcolonial fiction. Other award-winning postcolonial writers include Kiran Desai, Amitav Ghosh, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Arundhati Roy, and Ben Okri. The poetry of Derek Walcott, Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral, and Rabindranath Tagore (all of whom are recipients of the Nobel Prize for literature) are great examples of poetry in postcolonial writing.

Postcolonial Literary Theory

Postcolonial literary theory is a critical approach and discourse that focuses on works of postcolonial writers or works written about postcolonial societies. Postcolonial criticism also includes reading a work of literature without direct colonial associations to look for underlying colonial themes. For example, plays by Shakespeare, such as The Tempest (1611), are analysed using postcolonial perspectives.

Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors (1995), written by Elleke Boehmer, traces the history of colonial and postcolonial literature. Boehmer provides a detailed overview of the evolution of literature in the colonies and the narratives around them. Among the significant works on postcolonial theory are The Location of Culture (1994) by Homi K. Bhabha, Empire Writes Back (1989) by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Wretched of the Earth (1961) by Franz Fanon, and Orientalism (1978) by Edward Said. Other influential names related to postcolonial theory include Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Robert J. C. Young.